Ubisoft’s THE DIVISION Movie Shoots For Netflix

This year was a big E3 for Ubisoft. The mega-studio announced roller-derby game Roller Champions, co-op shooter Rainbow Six Quarantine, Greek mythology adventure Gods & Monsters, a new Ghost Recon title, new content for The Division 2 and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, plus its own game subscription service. It also introduced another Watch Dogs sequel that pits its London-based characters against "an all-seeing surveillance state," which Ubisoft would like to assure you is not a political statement in the slightest.

But in the mix was also a movie announcement: The Division, an adaptation we've known was coming for a while, is headed to Netflix.

The movie, to be directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw), will star Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain, presumably as agents of the titular Division. We knew that already (although Leitch is news to us; last we heard, Syriana's Stephen Gaghan was onboard). The official plot summary reads thus:

In the near future, a pandemic virus is spread via paper money on Black Friday, decimating the city of New York and killing millions. By Christmas, what’s left of society has descended into chaos. A group of civilians, trained to operate in catastrophic times, are activated in an attempt to save who and what remains.

We've played bothgames in the Division franchise, and it's certainly very serious and cinematic in a way that will lend itself well to a film, provided it's made well - it's in a genre that works equally well interactively and non. The premise of the movie is a slight adjustment to what the games portray, though; there's no mention of the fact that the Division is a government organisation, and that it's around to keep the peace, build communities, and shoot in the face anyone who dissents. Oh, and again, Ubisoft would like you to know that this story about government agents and a plague spread via money is not political at all.

There's no production or release date for The Division yet, but the fact it's now got a distributor - and the fact that that distributor is Netflix, which if nothing else follows through on its promises to make a ton of content - suggests it's closer than ever to getting made.

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Andrew is a New Zealand-born writer, filmmaker, and theatre practitioner who sometimes lives in Canada. He can be read at Birth.Movies.Death., SlashFilm, IGN, Polygon, and elsewhere. His favourite movie is MIRACLE MILE, his favourite band is the Manic Street Preachers, and his favourite commenters are the ones who read the article first.